The present invention, in some embodiments thereof, relates to method and system of large skin area treatments and, more particularly, but not exclusively, to method and system guiding and/or controlling a device and/or a process for large skin area treatments, such as cosmetic and/or diagnostics treatments.
In order to improve the efficacy, safety, predictability and/or tolerability of large skin area treatments, examination and/or diagnostic processes, a methodological scanning pattern has to be adopted. Such a pattern allows dividing the time spent on each portion of the large skin area in substantially equal manner, avoiding overlapping treatment sessions, and/or reducing the time span of an average treatment session.
Examples for large skin area examination and/or diagnostic processes include dermascope inspection, skin cancer inspection, and/or any other dermatologic diagnostic process. Examples for large skin area treatments include treatments based on electromagnetic waves, such as RF sources or light and ultrasound waves, for example acne treatments, hair removal treatments, tanning treatments, psoriasis treatments, skin tightening treatments, treatment of pigmented lesions, tattoo and/or any other tissue treatment.
During the last years, different methods and systems have been developed. For example U.S. Pat. No. 7,282,047 filed on Feb. 4, 2003 describes a device for moving a therapeutic energy source over an area to be treated including at least one therapeutic energy source adapted to produce therapeutic energy and coupled to a mounting structure, and at least one moving unit connected to the mounting structure and adapted to move the mounting structure and the energy source coupled thereto over an area to be exposed to therapeutic energy.
Another example is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,758,845, filed on Oct. 8, 1999 that describes a laser skin treatment apparatus includes a handpiece for delivering laser-radiation pulses from a laser to an area of skin being treated. The area being treated is larger than an area treatable in a single firing of the laser. The larger area is treated by treating adjoining sub-areas within the larger area by repeated firings of the laser. The laser is fired automatically depending on the position of the handpiece in the larger area. Several arrangements for determining the position of the handpiece are disclosed. These include optical detection by the handpiece of indicia drawn on the skin being treated; optical, magnetic, or mechanical detection of indicia on a separate guide for the handpiece or on a roller attached to the handpiece; and detection by determining time of travel of signals from a transponder in the handpiece to a fixed reference plane.